Revealing Hope in the Midst of an Awesome Storm

Published by helloredds@gmail.com on 10/13/2025 10/28/2025

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Revealing Hope in the Midst of an Awesome Storm

Psychologists have come up with lists of ‘stressors’ that can cause serious emotional crisis in individuals’ lives, and how those affect us, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Ranking in the top 5 are the loss of a parent, the loss of a sibling, and a life-threatening illness.

Any one of these could derail a life with an emotional breakdown and put you in a place so dark you can’t see a way out.

You see, I speak from personal experience.

Let me quickly recap the last ten or so years of my life.

The Storms of My Life

In July 2013, my mother passed away from a botched knee replacement. Then, a month later, my father had emergency open-heart surgery.

That fall, my father and brother were both diagnosed with cancer, and my husband with prostate cancer. (Are you seeing tribulation?)

One year later, in the fall of 2014, my husband spent 2 months away from home for cancer treatment.

In February 2015, our grandson, born 6 weeks early and spent 6 weeks in the NICU.

Later, in August of 2016, another grandson, born early with pulmonary hypertension and spent 6 weeks in the NICU. (Watching your children bear these burdens is the most distressing of all.)

More Awesome Storms

Not long after, in 2018-2019, I fell into deep depression with suicidal thoughts and needed serious help finding my way out. (The stress was piling up, and I wasn’t dealing with it well.)

Then, COVID hit the world, and everything was turned upside down.

In September 2020, my father was killed in a tragic automobile accident. And in October 2020, my sister died alone, homeless, an alcoholic and drug addict.

Later, in the spring of 2021, my husband was diagnosed with Stage 4 non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, and our 34-year-old daughter had the first of ten grand mal seizures, the very day my husband’s cancer diagnosis was delivered.

Also, in January 2025, my brother’s cancer became metastatic, we cared for him in Hospice, and he passed away on May 5, 2025.

More Than Enough

Just how much can one person endure?

You may be adding up your trials and coming up with a list longer than mine. How and where can we find hope with this pile of trouble?

Even through these past ten years of heart-wrenching trials, tribulations, death, and crisis after crisis, I can confidently say, my hope remains. I don’t know how or why, but this I can say for certain: I still cling to my hope in Christ Jesus to see me through the next hurdle, and without a doubt, he will.

Jesus said, “In this world, you WILL have tribulation.” (John 16:33). Not may, might, or could. It’s a statement of fact. You WILL. And sometimes, they’ll pile one on top of another…and another. And He also tells us that “He will never leave us or forsake us.” (Heb. 13:5)

That is where we find HOPE. In His promises.

What is Hope?

“A desire of some good, accompanied with at least a slight expectation of obtaining it, or a belief that it is attainable. Hope differs from wish and desire in this, that it implies some expectation of obtaining the good desired, or the possibility of possessing it. Hope, therefore, always gives pleasure or joy; whereas wish and desire may produce or be accompanied by pain or anxiety.”

(Webster’s 1828 Dictionary)

Some Hope Questions

Where Do We Get hope?
How much can one endure and maintain hope?
Who signs up for tribulation?
Who signs up for problems and trials that test our mettle?

The things that may push us to the brink of a mental breakdown or to wish for an easy way out?

It’s certainly not what we think about when presented with the cherubic baby Jesus.

And we wonder, “Why me?” Isn’t that one of the first thoughts in our minds when something goes wrong or we’re pushed up against the wall of gut-wrenching grief? Isn’t this walk of faith supposed to be all blessings and rainbows?

Frail Humans

How is one emotional, frail human being supposed to endure all of this? I began to feel like Job and I could be really good friends, commiserating over our profound losses. How do I find a way out of all this dark heaviness? Will I ever be happy and smile again? Will this overwhelming sadness ever leave?

Certainly questions I asked myself questions again and again. How Lord?

There is some teaching pervasive right now in churches about abundance and blessing, favor and fortunes, and that’s just not the case for you or me.

Bad things happen.

To everyone at some point in time.

The apostles were well acquainted with grief, trials, and tribulation. All but one were martyred for their faith in Christ. What makes us think that we’re immune to such things?

We Don’t Live without Hope!

BUT, we don’t have to live as those without hope.

Trusting Him in the middle of the storm is the hardest part, but we’re in good company; the disciples had Jesus right in the boat with them during the storm, and they couldn’t trust Him, so don’t beat yourself up too much. If we can just manage to cling to the anchor of our faith, we WILL come out the other side. These trials may be many, but they are not endless.

Then, knowing that He’s seen us through the worst, we can trust more quickly and with deeper faith next time. And the next time WILL come. He doesn’t promise that there won’t be casualties or scars, but that He won’t leave us alone.

Because I KNOW that God is Sovereign over all things, I believe that He allows these trials to challenge us, to refine us, to elicit some response from us, or to cleanse us of something. He uses everything for our good and His Glory.

Why would these trials be any different? These challenges should CHANGE us!

Something Happens in Us

There is something holy that happens in us, in and through these situations.

We are being cleansed and perfected and prepared for the next trial that will surely come our way….it’s all part of our sanctification process, and He won’t stop until He calls us home.

Even though in the middle of the trial, when we feel as though we’re being flayed wide open and skinned alive, He’s right there with you. Can we begin to think of these times as holy? In knowing, with each test or trial, we are one step further along in our perfection?

To be sure, if we don’t learn what we’re supposed to from these sufferings, another similar one will come along again, to eliminate something from us or produce something in us. Because He loves us, He won’t give up on us and leave us where we are.

What is the Answer?

Faith AND hope, my friends, is the answer.

Clinging to our Savior with all that you have and not letting go, no matter what. There were times during these many trials when I thought, “Lord, I can’t take one more thing.” Times when the darkness and heaviness were so thick that I couldn’t breathe, and I was certain that my heart would forget to beat the next beat, or I hoped it would.

When the pain was so bad that even tears were impossible. We MUST remember in those moments that He’s always with us, beside us, and IN us. He feels what we feel and understands our pain, no matter the source.

Whether betrayal, death, or sickness, He’s experienced everything we do.

With each successive trial, we learn more about His faithfulness and love for us, making us able to trust deeper with the next assault. You WILL come out the other side and look back, seeing His sovereign hand upon you through the whole trial, holding you, walking beside you, loving you. Be encouraged, my friend!

Cling to your HOPE in Christ. He is so worthy!

“Joy knows pain. One must know the depths of struggle to know the elation of joy. We need people who have known both to show us the way out, to give us hope.”

Your pain, your struggles, and your victories will carve the map for someone else who is enduring the same. You can help those who come after you to walk the path out of darkness, because you already know the way.

THAT is the purpose of what we endure; that we use our experiences, our victories, AND failures and point out the map that we have forged, to help someone else find their way to the other side! For His glory and our good!

Final Thoughts – Revealing Hope in the Midst of an Awesome Storm

Trust Him as Savior
Know His promises and cling to them for dear life.
Even in the darkest moments, He is with you, even if you don’t feel Him.
Share your hardest thoughts with a trusted believer. Don’t keep it to yourself.
Know that this won’t last forever.
On the other side, your faith will be stronger and your trust deeper.
Praise in the middle of the storm, and at the end of the storm.

HE is our HOPE!

“For our momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison,”

2 Cor. 4:17, NASB

About the Author: Terri Shaver

Terri Shaver is a wife of 45 years to Tom, mother of 4, and “Busia” to 9 beautiful grandchildren, who lives in a small farm town outside of Lansing, Michigan.

She was miraculously saved in 1984, when God used their stillborn daughter to call her to faith in Him.

Also, she’s been Bible journaling for many years, filling journals with drawings, mixed media art, and lessons that the Lord is teaching her; with plans to leave these behind for future generations, that they might learn about her journey of faith.

Connect with Terri Shaver:

You can find her in her vegetable garden, her sewing room, knitting in her favorite chair, or on Instagram @terrishaver.

Find her on Facebook @Terri Rytlewski Shaver.

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Revealing Hope in the Midst of an Awesome Storm